Thornhill Elementary PFC Newsletter
September 3, 2019
Dear Thornhill Families,
Our community is mourning the loss of Pam Grover Kordosky, our Adventure Time (AT) site director at Thornhill, who died this weekend.
Grief counseling will be available at school this week to provide assistance for our children. Death can be a difficult subject to explain to young children; Thornhill’s new Mental Health Consultant and Licensed Clinical Social Worker Ms. Alia included a note in Mr. Daubenspeck’s Konstella announcement, and I encourage you to read it to help approach this very hard subject with your kids.
Anyone who has sent their kids to AT over the past 20-some years at Thornhill has been fortunate to know that Pam was there, making sure that all of our children were safe and well-looked after. But, Pam's involvement with Thornhill went beyond Adventure Time, as she worked in other roles around the school, and took time out of her day to oversee the childcare for our monthly PFC meetings.
Pam, her husband Kevin, and their daughter, Fiona, were ingrained in the Thornhill community. I'm told that even after Fiona graduated out of Thornhill this past spring, she would come to AT after finishing her school day to be with her mother and go home with her. Whenever Pam would mention Fiona, you could hear the happiness in her voice.
I spoke with Kevin last night, and let me just say that I don't know if I have ever talked with someone who sounded so brave so soon after such a tragedy as what he and Fiona are experiencing. This is a time when we all need to come together and provide any kind of support we can for Kevin and Fiona.
With Kevin's blessing, and appreciation, on behalf of Thornhill and the PFC, we have set up a GoFundMe page for donations to assist Kevin and Fiona during this difficult time. Please visit this link if you would like to contribute.
Thornhill is going to be a lesser place without Pam. But, I hope that we can honor her by still making it a good place for everyone in our community.
Rex Crum,
PFC President
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Calendar
The website always has the latest calendar information, and here's what's coming up:
- Thursday, September 5: Dine Out at Pattys & Buns (11:30am-7:30pm)
- Monday, September 9: First PFC Meeting (6-7pm, Thornhill Library, followed by socializing/dinner/drinks at Monaghan’s, no-host)
- Wednesday, September 11-Thursday, September 12: Picture days with MugsyClicks
- Friday, September 27: Professional development day (no school)
- Friday, October 4: Minimum Day for Science (no enrichment classes)
- Saturday, November 2: Thornhill Walkathon
Be sure also to download the OUSD District calendar here and subscribe to our Google calendar here.
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About the Thornhill Newsletter
The Thornhill Parent Faculty Club (PFC) eNews team publishes this weekly newsletter each Tuesday in the school year to communicate school, PFC and OUSD news, events and information.
Email submissions to our Newsletter Chair, Evie Nagy, at newsletter@thornhillschool.org by 8 p.m. Thursday for approval—nothing sent after this will be included in the following week’s newsletter unless there are extremely compelling extenuating circumstances. It’s fine to include text in the body of the email with links and no formatting, and attach photos preferably as 150 x 150, 72 dpi JPG or GIFs only (not embedded in email or Word file). Submissions may be edited for spelling, grammar, brevity and clarity. Advertising and items not related to Thornhill are not accepted, as we need to keep the newsletter focused on need-to-know info for the community.
THANK YOU to everyone who submits articles and to PFC Board Members, Teachers, VP of Communications Erin Proudfoot, PFC President Rex Crum, and Principal Steve Daubenspeck. Member of Oakland Unified School District (OUSD).
Email: webmaster@thornhillschool.org
Website: thornhillschool.org
Location: 5880 Thornhill Drive, Oakland, CA, USA
Phone: 510-339-6800